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1. The national coordination centres shall have the following tasks:

(a) acting as points of contact at national level for the Community to support the Competence Centre in fulfilling its mission and objectives, in particular in coordinating the Community through the coordination of Community members in their Member States;

(b) providing expertise and actively contributing to the strategic tasks set out in Article 5(2), taking into account relevant national and regional challenges for cybersecurity in different sectors;

(c) promoting, encouraging and facilitating the participation of civil society, industry, in particular start-ups and SMEs, the academic and research communities and other stakeholders at national level in cross-border projects and in cybersecurity actions funded by relevant Union programmes;

(d) providing technical assistance to stakeholders by supporting them in the application phase for projects managed by the Competence Centre in relation to its mission and objectives, and in full compliance with the rules of sound financial management, especially with regard to conflicts of interest;

(e) seeking to establish synergies with relevant activities at national, regional and local level, such as national policies on research, development and innovation in the area of cybersecurity, in particular those policies stated in the national cybersecurity strategies;

(f) implementing specific actions for which grants have been awarded by the Competence Centre, including through the provision of financial support to third parties in accordance with Article 204 of the Financial Regulation under conditions specified in the grant agreements concerned;

(g) without prejudice to the competences of Member States for education and taking into account the relevant tasks of ENISA, engaging with national authorities regarding possible contributions to promoting and disseminating cybersecurity educational programmes;

(h) promoting and disseminating the relevant outcomes of the work of the Network, the Community and the Competence Centre at national, regional or local level;

(i) assessing requests by entities established in the same Member State as the national coordination centre to become part of the Community;

(j) advocating and promoting the involvement of relevant entities in the activities arising from the Competence Centre, the Network and the Community, and monitoring, as appropriate, the level of engagement with and the amount of public financial support awarded for cybersecurity research, developments and deployments.

2. For the purposes of point (f) of paragraph 1 of this Article, the financial support to third parties may be provided in any of the forms of Union contribution specified in Article 125 of the Financial Regulation, including in the form of lump sums.

3. On the basis of a decision as referred to in Article 6(6) of this Regulation, national coordination centres may receive a grant from the Union in accordance with point (d) of the first paragraph of Article 195 of the Financial Regulation in relation to carrying out the tasks laid down in this Article.

4. National coordination centres shall, where relevant, cooperate through the Network.